The present disclosure relates to a position information processing device, a position information processing method, a program, and a position information processing system.
In recent years, there has been provided a moving object such as an automobile or a mobile phone equipped with a reception device capable of receiving a radio signal transmitted from a satellite. With GPS (Global Positioning System) measurement, the position of the moving object equipped with such a reception device can be estimated. The position estimation technology using such a reception device is an important common base in a wide variety of fields such as navigation, security, and entertainment.
Further, there is also considered position estimation technology, in which a mobile terminal, which performs radio communication with a base station (access point) of a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), measures a signal strength of a signal transmitted from the base station, and a server communicable with a communication device estimates the position of the communication device based on the signal strength. For example, the base station of the wireless LAN transmits a beacon for notifying surroundings of the presence of the base station of the wireless LAN at regular intervals (for example, 5 times/second). The mobile terminal transmits the signal strength of the beacon to the server, and the server can estimate the position of the mobile terminal based on the signal strength and position information of the base station of the wireless LAN that is registered in advance.
According to the position estimation technology described above, since the base stations of the wireless LAN are installed inside a building and underground also, indoor- or underground-position estimation can be performed, which has been difficult to be realized by the position estimation technology based on the GPS measurement. That is, the position estimation technology may be excellent in convenience and simplicity, if base station information indicating a position of the base station of the wireless LAN installed around the mobile terminal is registered in the server. In order to identify the base station from which the received beacon is transmitted, the mobile terminal generally uses technology involving acquiring, from the beacon, a MAC (Media Access Control) address of the base station from which the beacon is transmitted.
Here, it is desirable that a MAC address be uniquely allocated to a base station, however, there is also assumed a case where an identical MAC address is allocated to a plurality of different base stations for some reason. In this case, it is difficult for the mobile terminal to accurately identify a base station from which a beacon is transmitted based on a MAC address included in the beacon. As a result thereof, the server erroneously acquires the position information of the base station from which the beacon is transmitted, and hence, it becomes difficult to accurately estimate the position of the mobile terminal. For example, JP 2010-273267A discloses technology involving detecting a state in which an identical MAC address is set to a plurality of devices.